free DIY poop scoop- how to

Make a scoop, hand spade or trowel from an old plastic milk carton

I saw this handy tip to recycle an old bottle into gardening tools on the internet and I had the idea that it will be useful for cleaning up the lawn after the dogs! It’s very easy.

You need scissors, a clean, empty plastic milk bottle and 1 or 2 minutes… Mark out with pen or by eye this shape on the bottle … and cut!

You could always round off the end if you preferred to make a trowel shape.

Road test … what worked well

The spade shape works very well as a scoop and I will continue to use it in our garden. So pleased 🙂 Our dogs are Labradors and Beardies and so if your dogs are this size or smaller, it is worth trying.

As gardening tools, they would both work well if the soil was fine and dry- perfect for things like moving new compost from the bag into a pot.

What didn’t work

The trowel shape had a tendency to be bendy and was a little tricky to use.

Neither the trowel or spade were able to cope with cleaning up after our neighbours Newfie, I had to find something else in the end. I don’t think it would work for dogs much larger than a Labrador.

The spade is by far the more robust shape but both bent in wet hard soil.

Other uses

Other spades could also be put to good use in the kitchen for measuring out rice or flour etc, in the children’s sand pit, water play area or pretend box, or for scooping up the Lego.